diff --git a/packages/grafana-data/src/types/config.ts b/packages/grafana-data/src/types/config.ts
index b1a02c0ce95..bb003374d92 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-data/src/types/config.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-data/src/types/config.ts
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@ export type OAuthSettings = Partial<Record<OAuth, { name: string; icon?: string
 export interface CurrentUserDTO {
   isSignedIn: boolean;
   id: number;
+  externalUserId: string;
   login: string;
   email: string;
   name: string;
diff --git a/public/app/core/services/context_srv.ts b/public/app/core/services/context_srv.ts
index a4d838035d7..ecee561f4a0 100644
--- a/public/app/core/services/context_srv.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/services/context_srv.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ export class User implements CurrentUserInternal {
   login: string;
   email: string;
   name: string;
+  externalUserId: string;
   lightTheme: boolean;
   orgCount: number;
   orgId: number;
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ export class User implements CurrentUserInternal {
     this.orgId = 0;
     this.orgName = '';
     this.login = '';
+    this.externalUserId = '';
     this.orgCount = 0;
     this.timezone = '';
     this.fiscalYearStartMonth = 0;
diff --git a/public/app/core/services/echo/backends/analytics/RudderstackBackend.ts b/public/app/core/services/echo/backends/analytics/RudderstackBackend.ts
index e9f1ffc8e15..0f3b16c4923 100644
--- a/public/app/core/services/echo/backends/analytics/RudderstackBackend.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/services/echo/backends/analytics/RudderstackBackend.ts
@@ -7,12 +7,13 @@ import {
   isPageviewEvent,
   PageviewEchoEvent,
 } from '@grafana/runtime';
-import { User } from '../sentry/types';
+import { CurrentUserDTO } from '@grafana/data';
+import { getUserIdentifier } from '../../utils';
 
 export interface RudderstackBackendOptions {
   writeKey: string;
   dataPlaneUrl: string;
-  user?: User;
+  user?: CurrentUserDTO;
   sdkUrl?: string;
   configUrl?: string;
 }
@@ -57,7 +58,9 @@ export class RudderstackBackend implements EchoBackend<PageviewEchoEvent, Rudder
     (rds as any).load(options.writeKey, options.dataPlaneUrl, { configUrl: options.configUrl });
 
     if (options.user) {
-      (rds as any).identify(options.user.email, {
+      const identifier = getUserIdentifier(options.user);
+
+      (rds as any).identify(identifier, {
         email: options.user.email,
         orgId: options.user.orgId,
       });
diff --git a/public/app/core/services/echo/utils.test.ts b/public/app/core/services/echo/utils.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0b646cd8363
--- /dev/null
+++ b/public/app/core/services/echo/utils.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+import { CurrentUserDTO, OrgRole } from '@grafana/data';
+import { getUserIdentifier } from './utils';
+
+const baseUser: CurrentUserDTO = {
+  isSignedIn: true,
+  id: 3,
+  login: 'myUsername',
+  email: 'email@example.com',
+  name: 'My Name',
+  lightTheme: false,
+  orgCount: 1,
+  orgId: 1,
+  orgName: 'Main Org.',
+  orgRole: OrgRole.Admin,
+  isGrafanaAdmin: false,
+  gravatarUrl: '/avatar/abc-123',
+  timezone: 'browser',
+  weekStart: 'browser',
+  locale: 'en-AU',
+  externalUserId: '',
+};
+
+const gcomUser: CurrentUserDTO = {
+  ...baseUser,
+  externalUserId: 'abc-123',
+};
+
+describe('echo getUserIdentifier', () => {
+  it('should return the external user ID (gcom ID) if available', () => {
+    const id = getUserIdentifier(gcomUser);
+    expect(id).toBe('abc-123');
+  });
+
+  it('should fall back to the email address', () => {
+    const id = getUserIdentifier(baseUser);
+    expect(id).toBe('email@example.com');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/public/app/core/services/echo/utils.ts b/public/app/core/services/echo/utils.ts
index 1765b0017fe..edcfe096d77 100644
--- a/public/app/core/services/echo/utils.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/services/echo/utils.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,20 @@
 import { attachDebugger, createLogger } from '@grafana/ui';
 
+import { CurrentUserDTO } from '@grafana/data';
+
+/**
+ * Returns an opaque identifier for a user, for reporting purposes.
+ * Because this is for use when reporting across multiple Grafana installations
+ * It cannot simply be user.id because that's not unique across two installations.
+ */
+export function getUserIdentifier(user: CurrentUserDTO) {
+  if (user.externalUserId.length) {
+    return user.externalUserId;
+  }
+
+  return user.email;
+}
+
 /** @internal */
 export const echoLogger = createLogger('EchoSrv');
 export const echoLog = echoLogger.logger;